


Paint

by Linae_Liminae



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, mention of other characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:28:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7903123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linae_Liminae/pseuds/Linae_Liminae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which cultural differences change the meaning to simple things... like paint.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paint

Shiro isn’t an idiot by any means, and by that, he’s thinking specifically about how they are. He’s human. She’s Altean. There are bound to be some cultural differences, at the very least.

Which, as it happens, should be something he will openly express and stress to anyone who even so much as looks at him funny for what had happened just two days ago. To be fair, he had no idea. To be fair, she had sort of forgotten. To be fair, if they have different terms for _time_  then it would make sense that they’d have different understandings for a few things.

Like paint.

Diplomatic missions notwithstanding, he had honestly believed that their trip had been purely to relax (maybe she had a different understanding of that too) to take a small break. The team needed to let loose, and after _that_  particular mission that nearly killed Hunk, almost decapitated Keith, and left Pidge rather shaken after killing her first Galra soldier firsthand, even Allura couldn’t argue.

The air had been so tense lately, Shiro was glad for the opportunity to find a patch of galaxy that had not seen evidence of Zarkon’s crushing hold.

The planet they had found was part of a cluster system that connected their residents through portals that flashed bright colors and left an enchanting image over the light of the system’s sun.

Allura, to her credit, recognized it from stories of one of her Mother’s friends, and how it was a place where the locals had mastered an art of relaxation and jubilation. Shiro didn’t even hesitate, he smiled at everyone and said,

“Let’s take a break. We could use it.”

they touched down and were swept into a large planet wide festival that erupted with flowers and food and play that enticed the team to a beach.

They split up, more than happy to let loose for a while and while Hunk, Lance, Keith, and Pidge took off, Shiro knew better than to abandon the Princess. He was happy to take her side as a loyal paladin.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join them?” Allura asked as he watched the team play among the surf and bright blue waters. Shiro took in the sights of black sand beaches and exotic orange blooms that flickered and took flight over trees and landed on the water.

“I’m fine keeping an eye,” he said, smiling when he looked at her. Allura’s lips were pursed, blue eyes (flecked pink) eyed him curiously.

“You know, I’m fully capable of defending myself,” she said with a wry grin.

Shiro’s cheeks flushed pink and he rubbed his neck, “I know.”

“Then go,” she urged, taking hold of his elbow and guiding him in the direction of his friends. “As much as you are their leader, you’re also their friend.”

Shiro smiled, “Sometimes I feel more like an older brother than a friend.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, accepting a trinket form a passing local, who was busy flinging petals and beads of all sorts of colors. She pressed the trinket to her nose and giggled. Upon Shiro’s curious look she held the bizarre gizmo to his face where it blew a faint wind into his nose and made his eyes feel like they were being tickled. Shiro sneezed, covering his face in his arm as he did so.

“ _Gan’a_ ,” Allura said. Shiro recognized the word–the nearest equivalent to saying bless you in Altean, although Allura said it was nothing alike.

“I mean,” Shiro continued. “Sometimes I forget how young they are. We’re all so busy wrapped up in this war, fighting for planets and fighting against Zarkon… It’s easy to forget that they’re practically kids and I’m…”

Allura’s eyes crinkled with understanding, “I see what you mean.”

“You do?”

She nodded, a lock of silver hair falling from the bun pinned to the back of her head. “I was alive ten thousand years before you, Shiro. Sure, I was in cryostasis for most of it…but we are ages away from one another. Sometimes all I can think about is how I’ve dragged you and these children into a war that I should’ve have helped stop before your ancestors were even born.”

Shiro stayed silent at that, he hadn’t thought of it like that before. “I’m twenty five.”

Allura glanced up, curious. He smiled, “Earth years. I’m twenty five.”

“Before the war, I had finished celebrating my twentieth year,” Allura said, beaming. Her lips parted in a pensive expression, “Although, considering how our time can differ… I guess I may be a little older by your earth standards, I suppose.”

Shiro blinked in surprise, Allura noticed. “What?”

“Oh, I…” he began before letting out a slight cough, “I guess I never realized how much more in common we have.”

Allura’s face brightened in a beautiful smile, “I guess we do have some similarities.”

A loud horn sounded nearby and Shiro instinctively reached for Allura, his right hand rising in preparation for battle. A hand landed right on his, and when he glanced Allura was smiling ever brighter. “I’ve heard of something like this! I’ve always wanted to try it.”

“You know what’s going on?” Shiro asked. Allura nodded, hair shimmering in the sunlight.

“They’ll be doing a dance soon,” Allura said. “Oh! and with paint! You should join me!”

Shiro blanched, “Oh, uh…I don’t know if I…”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fun! Besides, it’d be a waste for you to come here and not do anything to let loose yourself, Shiro.” Before he could say anything else, Allura was pulling him around his arm, tugging him deeper into the throng of multi-colored tourists and locals alike. Shiro couldn’t help a laugh as she tugged him deeper and deeper until they arrived into a clearing at what looked like the town’s square.

In the center of the clearing was a tall structure covered in bright orange sheets that looked like fabric, flowing in the wind.

“Come!” Allura called, pulling him with a strength that startled a yelp from Shiro and she laughed as they approached. It looked smaller from afar, and when they approached, Shiro could see that inside the very bottom of the structure, people were walking in and out, covered in colorful liquids that Shiro figured were the paint.

Music was playing from somewhere close and for all Shiro saw, he couldn’t quite find where it was coming from. It was a pulsing beat with shrill sorts of melodies that were strangely soothing and entrancing. Immediately, his chest and heart filled with a thrill from the twisting notes and laughter from Allura’s throat.

He took his eyes off her for a moment, taken by the color of the fabric on the structure when it suddenly shifted into a vibrant purple color. He had turned to look for Allura, excited to tell her what he saw when the words died on his tongue.

She had pulled off her outer dress–part of a gown set she had worn down with them that reminded him of a summer dress–revealing delicious bronze skin and a wrap that barely covered her breasts. the bottom of her dress hung off her hips where twin pink marks hugged the bottom of her back and the dips of her hipbones. Allura tied the dress around her waist, and it shimmered all around her like water. She looked up at him, smiling wide and innocent. Then, she winked at him.

Shiro swallowed _hard._

“Uh…!” Shiro squeaked, “Allura, what…?!”

“Take your shirt off!” She exclaimed, lifting her arms to adjust the bun on her head. Shiro’s eyes followed the curve of her arm pits down to the weight of her breasts before he could stop himself.

“What?” He asked, not sure if he heard her right. Allura rolled her eyes before reaching toward the hem of his black shirt and tugged. The fabric rose to his chest and Shiro let out a yelp. “Allura, what are you _doing_?!”

“It’s going to stain if you don’t take it off,” Allura said, dragging her hands around him to help him out of his shirt. Her touch sent a fury of tingling all over his skin and the music wasn’t helping. He swore he was going to turn pink all over and not because of the sun. Begrudgingly, Shiro allowed her to remove his shirt and she worked to tug it in one of his pockets as Shiro had become rather useless when his eyes landed on the dip of her cleavage.

When she looked back up at him, Shiro’s cheeks were a deep red. “Come on!”

She grabbed him around his arm again, pulling him close until he could feel her skin against his and she was tugging him into the cloth structure.

Inside, the music was pulsing right into his blood, spinning in his head and nearly making him woozy with its force. It wasn’t loud, which confused him, but it sank so deeply inside him he wasn’t sure if he should cover his ears for a moment. Allura registered his confusion and placed her hands right against his temples. Shiro’s heart rammed against his chest when she pulled close to press her forehead against his–her tiara felt cold against his skin.

“Stay with me,” she said and he heard it clearly. “This is going to be a little weird at first, but you’ll like it. Promise!”

He didn’t know his hands had landed right on her waist until she was leading him deeper inside. Something rained down over him, falling in fine sprays and quick drips, to oozing down right over his head and shoulders and sliding like syrup. He glanced up and saw that there was no roof all the way up high and that people were on the higher levels, turning over plants that seemed to excrete the liquid right over them.

Shiro couldn’t really figure what it was but as soon as it touched him, it filled him with an urge to sway and jump along with the music. He almost did, but his eyes searched for Allura and was glad he did.

She was just a few feet away, and petals that floated around her emitted a glow that cast strange light on her and made her look ethereal. Her eyes were closed and the pink marks under her eyes and on her hips were glowing a bright pink color. He would have wondered at that if not for the fact her hips were undulating and her arms were twisting with the music.

Her lips parted, and he followed a trickle of pink liquid as it dripped down her forehead and down her cheek until it teased her lip. A hunger filled him then, a strange musk that enticed him made him lick his lips.

Allura opened her eyes then, and her lips curled into a smile. He reached for her, and she slid her hands right into his before she twirled into his hold. Shiro’s mind scattered when she pressed her hips right into his.

“Like this, Shiro,” she dragged her hands up his arms and stretched them out, leaning against him and forcing him to arch back. “Let the music fill you!”

The way she kept gyrating had him biting down on his tongue, but the paint that was falling over him was making it difficult to fight her motions. He followed, undulating along with her until his eyes felt heavy and his arms ached to hold her.

His hands tugged around her hips, just as her hands cradled his head. A single tug on his hair unleashed what he had struggled to hold back. Shiro dropped his head and dug his teeth against her neck, and he felt her draw in a sharp breath. His hand, flesh and slippery, slid up the firm slopes of her stomach until it was grazing her breast and teasing the fabric that held her skin from him.

Her hips twisted again and his bucked forward.

“There you go,” Allura sighed, “You’re really feeling it.”

Shiro hummed in response, drawing his teeth from her to delight in the way she tasted. His mind was a mess of desire and confusion, but it all felt so unbelievably good. He wasn’t sure if it was him, but something in the rhythm picked up pace. 

“This…” he groaned. “This is…”

Allura twisted in his hold, drawing her arms around his neck to press them flush together. She tugged him and he followed, her hips bucked and his head fell forward until his mouth was right by her earlobe.

“Just sway,” she said, humming. Shiro didn’t realize how much he was leaning on her until her hands ran down his back. He circled his hands around her waist again, this time with a surge of primal desire that pulsed right into his groin and made him suck in shaky breaths. “There you go,” Allura hummed.

“Just let loose, Shiro.”

Something landed right on the base of his neck and slid down his spine, trailing a deep heat that made him groan and buck hard against Allura’s hips. She groaned, in surprise, in delight…? Shiro didn’t know but the noise was making him go crazy.

Allura pulled away, and their eyes met through the glows and the rain of paint and the liquids and the pulse of music and Shiro felt his body fall in a familiar surge of pleasure that had him plastering his hands right against her rear to shove her hard against his hips.

It didn’t register to him _exactly_ what happened until he pulled away from her and blinked. “Allura…?”

“That was exquisite, Shiro!” Allura said with a bright smile. “How do you feel?”

“I…” his knees felt like jello. “Did I just…”

“You did!” Allura beamed, “You became one with the music!”

“I…what?” Shiro asked, frowning. “I did?”

Allura nodded, “Sure did! Well, as much as human’s do, I suppose. You’re certainly more hands on than other males I’ve seen dance in the paint before, but that was fascinating! It was also rather intimate…I hope you don’t mind spending your first time with me.”

Shiro took in a breath and the smell of evergreens filled him with a clarity that he had not expected. It was almost perfect…until he realized _what he had just done._

Shiro pushed himself away roughly, flushing a deep red and tugging his shirt around his front.

“Shiro?” Allura asked, her expression pinched with confusion and concern. “Are you alright?”

“I…I gotta go…I…” he stammered, unable to look at Allura in the eye. He turned and pushed out of the twisting and dancing figures, several crying out in shouts and bright squeals that meant so different to him now that he had done a similar noise himself just moments ago– _and right on the princess no less!_

Outside of the structure, Shiro was under the sun again, and he was blinking, feeling like he had been ripped into reality all too quickly. He didn’t know where he was going, only that he had to keep moving or else he’d do something worse…like going back to Allura and pressing his mouth right against her– _stop_.

“Shiro!” Allura’s voice broke into his ears and Shiro’s ears burned with embarrassment. He hurried a little faster. “Shiro, what’s going on? Shiro!”

He had turned into an alley to cut her off when he felt a familiar hand latch into his flesh arm and tug. He was whirled around, meeting a pair of blue eyes (flecked with pink) that looked awfully confused and worried.

“Shiro, stop, what’s wrong?” Shiro looked away, stepping away and stammering. “Look at me, what’s happened? We were having so much fun!”

“I can’t go back there,” he said finally, deciding that the rock on the building next to him was infinitely more fascinating than it really was.

“Why not? You were letting loose! You even felt the tide! The paint…what happened? Was it too much?”

“Yes,” Shiro said, eyes squeezing tight. “It was too much.”

“I don’t understand, please, talk to me.” Her hand on his wasn’t leaving and the paint on his skin was still too fresh, just like the very real feeling in his pants was too real.

With a heavy breath and an awkward glance, Shiro realized he had no choice but to tell her. It was all too sudden, but he realized then that the beautiful woman in front of him was so _not_ human. She was alien… and she probably didn’t really realize what happened.

“Allura, in there…” Shiro began, voice tight and fingers tingling. “In there, something more happened to me. I don’t know what…but it made me… _feel_  something very different…but very familiar.”

Allura frowned but she nodded, silently urging him on. Shiro inwardly groaned. “On earth, we have a term for that…well, several terms for it. It only really ever happens under…specific…circumstances.”

“Such as…?” she asked. He couldn’t help but want to sink into a tiny little hole in the ground and die.

“Such as…well…sex.” He said finally.

“Sex?” Allura asked. Shiro nodded.

“Yes, sex. Uh…copulating…?” Shiro offered wincing. Allura’s eyes brightened with understanding then, her cheeks burning pink.

“Oh!” She exclaimed. “I don’t understand, sorry…but is that how earthlings…copulate?”

Shiro shook his head, “It’s a little more…complicated than that. But in short, I…basically came. Ejaculated…” to his ever growing mortification and relief, Allura understood.

“Oh, well…that was kind of the point.” Allura said. Shiro’s embarrassment was flung out the window for a new wave of confusion.

“I…it what?”

Allura nodded, “It’s a method for relaxation. Dancing with paint! It’s basically a way for your body to release all its tension through a sensual sort of release. I was worried about you not joining the team and figured, well you’re older, so you’d probably understand how stress releasing that sort of thing can be.”

Shiro nodded, “Oh, I know that…”

“What I don’t understand is your reaction,” Allura said, wilting slightly. Her expression appeared sad, even a little wounded. “I was worried I had done something wrong.”

“Oh…it was nothing you did,” Shiro said, laughing nervously. “You did everything right for that sort of…ahem…”

Allura didn’t seem to look abashed or even embarrassed by his words. “Then, why did you run?”

Shiro realized then and there just how different they were, so he grabbed her other hand and held it. “Something you have to understand, Allura, about my race and our customs…sex and anything associated with it is…extremely intimate for some of us.”

“It is for us Alteans as well,” Allura replied. Shiro smiled softly. 

“Well, to be a little more specific, that sort of thing is usually only done with a partner of our choosing…or it’s done alone. But it’s very, very…private for us. In some cases, it can be humiliating if one feels like they’ve been taken advantage of, or if they’ve taken advantage of someone.”

Allura’s chin ducked downwards, her eyes crinkling with slight panic. “Do…you feel like I’ve taken advantage of you?”

“No!” Shiro shook his head, then flushed at her look of alarm. “I…I kind of feel like I took advantage of you.”

Allura shook her head, “How could you have? I was the one who took you in there, who led you in the dance.”

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Shiro sighed. “For starters…we don’t really know each other all that well. For me to engage in anything sexual with you…considering I’m male and everything…I sort of feel responsible for anything that could happen.”

“Oh,” Allura hummed, and for a moment she said nothing. Seemingly taking it all in. She suddenly glanced up at him, and there was the bashful gleam and suddenly Shiro felt like his body was catching on some signs that made his heart squeeze. “Could I ask you something?”

“Uh…sure.”

“Would you mind…if I took that responsibility?” Shiro’s stomach gave a little jump at that.

“H-how do you mean?” He asked, throat feeling tight. Allura glanced down at his lips once before she took a step closer, surging up on her toes to capture his mouth in a sudden kiss that took his lips right into hers to give a swift suckle. Shiro’s legs gave a little wobble.

“In Altea,” she murmured against his lips before pulling away. Shiro’s eyes, having fallen closed during her kiss, blinked lazily open. “If a woman shows interest in a man, she usually approaches him for an opportunity to dance… I’d like to dance with you.”

“I…I thought we did already…” Shiro muttered, mind spinning. She brought his hands up to her hips and allowed his hands to squeeze around the supple flesh. Shiro let out a tight noise through his chest.

“I mean a different kind of dance altogether,” her eyes looked into his with an all new look. Shiro gulped. He was no stranger to that sort of stare, and his body didn’t seem too keen on saying no to the invitation. Shiro may be stupid at times…but he certainly was no idiot.

“I…” he began, when a buzzing chirp erupted from his pocket and from Allura’s hip.

_“Calling the Voltron Paladins,”_ Coran’s voice broke through the moment and both Allura and Shiro broke apart, cheeks flushing dark.  _“Sorry to interrupt, but the scanners have picked up a distress signal from the other side of the system. I’ve checked all the frequencies to see if someone else could cover but I guess it’s just us out here. Better get moving quick!”_

“Thank you, Coran,” Allura replied into her communicator. She sent Shiro a quick look, one that was both disappointed and wryly amused. “Guess we should get going. Universe to save and all that.”

“Right,” Shiro said, following her out the alley and through the streets of the town until they reached the beach where the team was gathering the last of their things into one of the castle’s pods. They were all still wet with ocean water and complaining to one another until they spotted the two of them.

As expected, Lance’s eyes went huge when he beheld Allura’s state of dress. “Why, _helloo_ –!”

“Not now, Lance,” Hunk groaned, tugging the teen into the pod after Keith.

“What happened to you guys?” Pidge asked, looking them over with a raised brow and a teasing smile. “Are you covered in paint?”

Shiro beat Allura to the punch, and hurried into the pod, grateful for his shirt tugged over his crotch and the fact no one here could read minds. “I’d rather not talk about it right now,” he said, brushing past Pidge to take a seat inside.

“You sure?” Pidge asked. “Because you look like my brother does after visiting his girlfriend.”

“Not _now_  Pidge.” Shiro ground out, and he flushed pink when he found Allura hiding a smile behind her hand. “Keith, take us out.”

“No problem, boss,” Keith called from the cockpit.

“Did you guys fall inside a bucket of paint or something?” Hunk asked.

“Oh, you know,” Allura said through a smile. “Something like that.”

Shiro said nothing even after the team begged and asked to know more after that. It didn’t help that when they arrived on the ship Coran slapped him in the shoulder with a congratulatory wink that made Shiro want to fling himself into the nearest sun.


End file.
